Russell the Social Butterfly

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I got to hear all sorts of good stories from Russell about how he filled the time while I was away. Of course, he was working during the day, but he had all this free time in the evenings...

The first story I heard was that Russell went out running shortly after I left and on the way home, he hear someone playing guitar in the park. Intrigued and probably not so interested in sitting in the house alone all night, Russell went up to the guy and struck up a conversation (I can only presume in Japanese) The conversation and guitar playing lasted until 4 in the morning. The week was off to a good start.

Another day there was a summer festival going on at the shrine on the corner of our street. There were food vendors and all the neighborhood people, so Russell went to check it out. After hanging around a while, he decided to head down to one of the neighborhood izakayas (like a bar, or tapas bar). When he arrived the hostess said she had just seen him at the festival. She asked where I was (because apparently having two foreigners drop in on a local bar makes an impression and is not quickly forgotten.) Russell told her that I was away in America for the week, so she made sure to spend extra time chatting with Russell and by the end of the evening, Russell had been invited into the men's table where all the local men gather after work and shoot the breeze - mostly about politics that particular night because the election was coming up.)

I know I am forgetting a few other stories of this nature, but that last one segues nicely into another story, so I'm going to shamelessly head off on a complete tangent and probably abandon the first topic...

The other night, Russell and were walking back from dropping off a movie. I had work to do, but Russell was getting a little house-happy and wanted to stay out a while longer. I suggested he go down to the local izakaya (the same place mentioned above). He thought it over and then decided a beer and a change of scene did sound appealing. I headed home and started working. About an hour later, Russell returned bearing gifts. The izakaya lady had send a bag of cookies and treats to me because - when asked where his wife was this time - Russell had mentioned that I was working late. I took a picture of my haul. Pretty good, huh? We enjoyed them for days.

Naturally, I couldn't help but go the next time. We went back this last Friday and I took a few Oregon toffees to share with the Izakaya lady as a thank you. She told us she would split them up and share them around the bar - wish we had brought something a little bigger! The only picture I have of any of these stories is the one I took of Russell in the Izakaya on our last drop in. I believe he was saying something to the effect of "I look terrible, don't take a picture of me!" Too bad, though, blogs without pictures are boring.